Great essay, as always. I want to mention the situation in the USA. Right now we are witnessing a vicious effort to take away the citizenship rights of many groups in my country. I have always been an LGBT activist for more than 55 years. But because I am a Jew I can no longer do this political work unless I agree that Israel must be destroyed and replaced with a country that, like Afghanistan or Iran, executes people for not being heterosexual (or pretending to be) or like Gaza allows their torture murders to go unprosecuted. If I even mention the lack of LGBT rights in Muslim majority countries, I am called a pink washer and genocidal. Thousands like me are just giving up on any political activism except in support of Jews. This has been and will be a huge blow to Progressive politics at a time when we cannot afford this.
Spot on. I don’t feel welcome in my own LGBTQ+ community because they have collectively and too frequently demonstrated anti-Jewish racism. It may be a small minority (maybe) who are perpetrating it, but the vast majority stand silently by. I am sad to admit I can no longer trust a progressive activist, a feminist activist, a progressive activist of any stripe until they prove to me they can be trusted. You, me and other Zionists are true progressives, feminists, LGBTQ+ rights advocates. THe others are “Zombie progressives,” which I will post aobut soon.
I am so sorry to hear this, but not surprised. I have posted a lot about this on FB and many of my LGBT friends have the same experience. As a nonbinary Q who was sexed as female at birth and is married to a cis-gender male, I passionately want to continue helping friends who can't "pass" for heteronormative the way I can (but don't want to.) They feel abandoned and isolated and afraid because of their concerns about "progressives" backing a group that has always killed LGBT people. It's as if they are being erased and told they have no rights by the very groups that historically protected them. In the USA, where I live, LGBTQ people are losing all our legal rights, nonbinary people are told they don't even exist, and transpeople who transitioned long ago are told they must return to their previous gender identification. Any advocacy for any of them is met with great hostility because even bringing up that they deserve human rights, too, is met with intense anger because of the implication that the only rights we should care about are the rights of Palestinians (to takeover Israel). I can om;y hope that "we shall overcome" because, sooner or later the zombies have to face facts! Such as that the Palestinians who live in the USA despise them and mostly backed Trump in our recent election because they share his ultra-conservative values.
Excellent! I am afraid that part of the reason that so many non-Jews are silent is that they are reading the New York Times, The Globe and Mail and listening to the CBC if they are left leaning and educated. If they are not, they are learning from TikTok and Instagram about the “genocide“ in Gaza. if I were not Jewish, I think I would trust the UN and all the humanitarian NGO’s that decry Israel’s “war crimes.” When we talk about it, we sound like conspiracy theorists but Hamas propaganda has become mainstream.
The two main groups obsessed with persecuting Jews are progressives and the far-right. Not that many people read NYT or listen to the CBC or NPR any more. These two groups are hateful and awful but they’re not a majority. Let’s grow a spine and know most people in North America support us against the Free Palestine cult.
The "Pro-Palestinian" activists actually harm any real civilians in Gaza by condemning them to life under a terror regime. Most of these activists dont even know what Palestine is. The actual terrorists agitating in Canada are - as bizarre as it may seem - understandable. After all, a terrorist is a terrorist no matter where they are. It is the white self-entitled "activists" that often (if not, mostly) come from priveleged backgrounds that puzzle me. They have never spent a day wondering what they will eat tomorrow. I sometimes think they are bored of their coddled lives.
Not sure whether the light note with which you ended this extremely dark post was appropriate - it greatly negated the otherwise important impact it might have had on readers who might actually have considered the negative impact of their silence in the face of these extreme circumstances was having. Instead of being left with the realisation that such silence in fact allowed 6 million Jews to be slaughtered by the Nazis while the rest of the world looked on, they’re left with the amusing commentary made in your “personal note”. What a wasted opportunity for even you to practice tikkun olam.
Can't help but notice you have no articles and since you're so motivated to criticize this one maybe you should post a superior rebuttal laying out whatever it is you're getting at which is unclear.
Saw a cartoon today mocking someone who was saying they're worried about the jihadi children and in the end it was about get the Jew.
Great essay, as always. I want to mention the situation in the USA. Right now we are witnessing a vicious effort to take away the citizenship rights of many groups in my country. I have always been an LGBT activist for more than 55 years. But because I am a Jew I can no longer do this political work unless I agree that Israel must be destroyed and replaced with a country that, like Afghanistan or Iran, executes people for not being heterosexual (or pretending to be) or like Gaza allows their torture murders to go unprosecuted. If I even mention the lack of LGBT rights in Muslim majority countries, I am called a pink washer and genocidal. Thousands like me are just giving up on any political activism except in support of Jews. This has been and will be a huge blow to Progressive politics at a time when we cannot afford this.
Spot on. I don’t feel welcome in my own LGBTQ+ community because they have collectively and too frequently demonstrated anti-Jewish racism. It may be a small minority (maybe) who are perpetrating it, but the vast majority stand silently by. I am sad to admit I can no longer trust a progressive activist, a feminist activist, a progressive activist of any stripe until they prove to me they can be trusted. You, me and other Zionists are true progressives, feminists, LGBTQ+ rights advocates. THe others are “Zombie progressives,” which I will post aobut soon.
I am so sorry to hear this, but not surprised. I have posted a lot about this on FB and many of my LGBT friends have the same experience. As a nonbinary Q who was sexed as female at birth and is married to a cis-gender male, I passionately want to continue helping friends who can't "pass" for heteronormative the way I can (but don't want to.) They feel abandoned and isolated and afraid because of their concerns about "progressives" backing a group that has always killed LGBT people. It's as if they are being erased and told they have no rights by the very groups that historically protected them. In the USA, where I live, LGBTQ people are losing all our legal rights, nonbinary people are told they don't even exist, and transpeople who transitioned long ago are told they must return to their previous gender identification. Any advocacy for any of them is met with great hostility because even bringing up that they deserve human rights, too, is met with intense anger because of the implication that the only rights we should care about are the rights of Palestinians (to takeover Israel). I can om;y hope that "we shall overcome" because, sooner or later the zombies have to face facts! Such as that the Palestinians who live in the USA despise them and mostly backed Trump in our recent election because they share his ultra-conservative values.
Excellent post and so true.
so very true.
Excellent! I am afraid that part of the reason that so many non-Jews are silent is that they are reading the New York Times, The Globe and Mail and listening to the CBC if they are left leaning and educated. If they are not, they are learning from TikTok and Instagram about the “genocide“ in Gaza. if I were not Jewish, I think I would trust the UN and all the humanitarian NGO’s that decry Israel’s “war crimes.” When we talk about it, we sound like conspiracy theorists but Hamas propaganda has become mainstream.
The two main groups obsessed with persecuting Jews are progressives and the far-right. Not that many people read NYT or listen to the CBC or NPR any more. These two groups are hateful and awful but they’re not a majority. Let’s grow a spine and know most people in North America support us against the Free Palestine cult.
The "Pro-Palestinian" activists actually harm any real civilians in Gaza by condemning them to life under a terror regime. Most of these activists dont even know what Palestine is. The actual terrorists agitating in Canada are - as bizarre as it may seem - understandable. After all, a terrorist is a terrorist no matter where they are. It is the white self-entitled "activists" that often (if not, mostly) come from priveleged backgrounds that puzzle me. They have never spent a day wondering what they will eat tomorrow. I sometimes think they are bored of their coddled lives.
The truth and so incredibly well said. Thank you.
Brilliant and insightful, as usual, Pat!
The should be on the op-ed page of the Globe and Mail!
Not sure whether the light note with which you ended this extremely dark post was appropriate - it greatly negated the otherwise important impact it might have had on readers who might actually have considered the negative impact of their silence in the face of these extreme circumstances was having. Instead of being left with the realisation that such silence in fact allowed 6 million Jews to be slaughtered by the Nazis while the rest of the world looked on, they’re left with the amusing commentary made in your “personal note”. What a wasted opportunity for even you to practice tikkun olam.
Can't help but notice you have no articles and since you're so motivated to criticize this one maybe you should post a superior rebuttal laying out whatever it is you're getting at which is unclear.
Saw a cartoon today mocking someone who was saying they're worried about the jihadi children and in the end it was about get the Jew.